September 08, 2010

Tripura safe corridor for infiltration, subversive activities

SILCHAR, Sept 7: After Karimganj and Dhubri, Tripura has emerged a safe corridor for infiltration and subversive activities. Taking advantage of the soft approach of the Left Government and long stretches of porous border, infiltration from Bangladeshis as well as jihadi elements has been going on. The incidents in the last few months indicate the disturbing trend.
Intelligence agencies monitoring the development have alerted the Union Home Ministry about increasing activities of ISI operatives in the State. The capital Agartala itself has become a rendezvous for them.
The latest to fall in security net on September 3 was the agent of the infamous Pak intelligence services identified as Nayeem Ahmed Mamoon from Lankamara border, close to Agartala. According to his confession, he entered from Bangladesh and visited Northeastern states as well.
BSF recovered from his possession incriminating documents and it came out that he is a resident of Gopalganj near Dhaka. Quite disturbing was his revelation that he did stay at Anantanag in Kashmir for some time for liaison with band outfits. Another ISI spy Manir Khan and his six Indian associates, it is to be recalled, were arrested on July 3 in the
capital of Tripura.
It was not long ago that PULF commander-in-chief Abdul Rahman and six other militants were arrested from Nagerjala bus stand in the heart of the city by a mobile task force. During grilling, Rahman said that an ISI officer Md. Jaffar had held series of meetings with PULF activists in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and carry out blasts in the Northeast. They were to fly to Karachi for training, but their arrest stood in the way.
Besides, the border of the State has been used for smuggling. Various incidents of truckloads of phendysil bottles worth lakhs of rupees pushed through Kailashahar in south Tripura have come to light. These cough syrups, popular in Bangladesh and used as intoxicants, is transported all the way from Siliguri and beyond. The drivers and their assistants who have landed in security net have admitted hassle free movement once they are inside Tripura for smuggling out the contrabands to the other side of the border.
Wonder of wonders, even the border with double stage barbed wire fencing not long ago was tampered with and cut open to smuggle out an elephant from the Assam to Bangladesh near Kailashahar. It did cause a flutter in the administrative and security circles, pointing to the fact that even fencing could be vulnerable. On the heels of it came to focus how an elephant and her calf were made to walk by two smugglers all the way from Jorhat to be taken to Kailashahar for push back.
The smugglers identified as Haque and Jabbar, detained by the police near Hillara railway station in Cachar, 60 miles from here, on August 30 last confessed their next destination was Kailashahar. The elephants after 18 days of walks along railway track remained undisturbed until some local people on suspicion informed the police and the forest department. It came out that the animals were stolen from Jorhat owned
by brick kiln owner Paramhansh Singh. If jumbos could be made to smuggle out through border, fenced or no fenced, the border management could not but call for critical review since the very security and integrity of the country as a whole is involved. (The Sentinel)